NEC Corp, Japan's largest maker of microchips, says it is cutting capital spending on microchip production in the year to March 1999, to stem losses on its unprofitable computer memory-chip business. In a reverse of its strategy of holding spending unchanged, Tokyo-based NEC would cut capital investment 17 per cent to 150 billion yen (about HK$7.95 billion), from an initial target for the period of 180 billion yen, an NEC official said.